lugubrious (2009-03-16)

Part of Speech: adjective

Pronunciation: [lu-'gu-bri-ês]

Definition: Mournful, gloomy, depressive, doleful.

Usage: We are rushing today's word simultaneously to Hollywood and to the floor of the US stock exchange where it is direly needed: "Incessantly lugubrious films like 'Insomnia' and 'The Road to Perdition' reverberate sympathetically with the mood of US stock market investors." However, we would never send you a word you could not use around the house: "The twins lugubriously finished their spinach and broccoli casserole while the rest of the family began watching TV."

Suggested Usage: Margo of Vancouver finds today's word "positively dripping in onomatopoeia. Those two 'u' sounds at the back of the mouth: the second one may be elongated as lugubriously as you feel at the time." Wonderful. The adverb is "lugubriously" and you have your choice of nouns: "lugubriousness" or "lugubriosity." No, Bela Lugosi's name has nothing to do with today's word, though he did play in his share of lugubrious films; it comes from the name of the Lugos river near his birthplace in Hungary.

Etymology: From Latin lugubris "mournful, sad" from lugere "to mourn," all based on the PIE root *leug- "break" which also rendered lugros "sore; mournful" in Greek and lungë "blain, ulcer" in Albanian. In German the stem devolved into Lücke "breach" and Loch "hole." Armenian lucanem "break off" is also related. In Sanskrit, where [l] regularly became [r], roga meant "breaking, illness." (Rich Bellshot of Erial, New Jersey and Tim Goodwin thought it was time to remind us of the word that has become so applicable to several sectors of the economy. Check out "How is a Hippo like a Feather?" in our library for more PIE.)